Stone Butch Blues (out of print)

Published in 1993, this brave, original novel is considered to be the finest account ever written of the complexities of a transgendered existence.

Woman or man? That's the question that rages like a storm around Jess Goldberg, clouding her life and her identity. Growing up differently gendered in a blue--collar town in the 1950's, coming out as a butch in the bars and factories of the prefeminist '60s, deciding to pass as a man in order to survive when she is left without work or a community in the early '70s.

This powerful, provocative and deeply moving novel sees Jess coming full circle, she learns to accept the complexities of being a transgendered person in a world demanding simple explanations: a he-she emerging whole, weathering the turbulence.

Woman or man? This internationally acclaimed novel looks at the world through the eyes of Jess Goldberg, a masculine girl growing up in the "Ozzie-and-Harriet" McCarthyite era and coming out as a young butch lesbian into the pre-Stonewall gay drag bars of a blue-collar town.

Stone Butch Blues traces a propulsive journey, powerfully evoking history and politics while portraying an extraordinary protagonist full of longing, vulnerability, and working-class grit. This once-underground classic takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride of gender transformation and exploration and, ultimately speaks to the heart of anyone who has ever suffered or gloried in being different.

Awards

Winner of the American Library Association Gay & Lesbian Book Award and the Lambda Literary Award.

Reviews

"A gift from one of the most inspiring and revolutionary voices of our time." --Emanuel Xavier, author of Americano

Author description

Leslie Feinberg is also the author of Trans Liberation, Trans Gender Warriors and Transgender Liberation, and is a noted activist and speaker on transgender issues